The Hunted
by Iniysa
Summary: Madam Pomfrey looks at the second war and thinks of the horrors she saw in the first. Complete!


The Hunted

By: Lauren Freeman

Disclaimer: I don't one any of the characters from Harry Potter. I am making no money from this.

House: Hufflepuff

Senseless, completely senseless is what it is. War, who thought up such a horrible way of getting what you want. Now I admit it's sometimes the only way to keep what you love, to fight for it, but the killing of children, innocent bystanders, people just trying to live there lives is not necessary.

The thought of it makes me want to cry, I would not tell this to a soul but sometimes I do. Especially when it comes down to a child verses the most evil being this world has ever seen. Of course, that child would be Harry Potter and where he goes his small student army and half the order will appear.

I fear that before the end of this war, as was in the last, thousands will die, all for the sake of power. Needless killings, torture, pain. I know first hand about this, I was a victim of the last bloody war. A newly graduated Medi-Witch sent to save the world one person at a time. I had seen carnage that would send the strongest person off emptying there stomachs to the side of the blood-covered roads.

The nightmare will forever plague me. Bodies strewn out in every direction, some not even recognizable. My job was to find the unfortunate ones, or fortunate however you looked at it, that had survived. I was given the almost impossible task of keeping them that way until a healer could take over or they could be transferred to one of many temporary hospitals.

I had been doing this for a year when it happened. I had heard of it happening to others, but it had never happened to me. I am ashamed to say I was one of those who did not think it could. In an attack, I was captured by Death Eaters. That was the first truly scary moment of my life, only to be out weighed by finding out that I was to be executed by Voldemort himself.

Torture was not something you would forget, ever. The pain of the horrible curses ache to the bone, potions that do things to you so horrible I will not say. Watching your own blood form a puddle around your bruised, battered body gave you hope that you might just die there and not have to face your worst fear. They called my name, it was time. I had never been, nor had been since that scared in my life. I was about to die a slow and painful death at the hands of my worst nightmare.

It happened so quickly the whole thing was fuzzy, a rescue. Dumbledore had somehow found out where You-Know-Who was hiding. I know I was not the only one rescued that early morning, but I would never know who I was locked in that hell with. We were kept in separate, very dark cells that smelt of blood, urine and feces. Aurors stunned the two Death Eaters that were dragging me down the long dark, moist hallway. The next thing I remembered I was in the Hogwarts Hospital wing, one of the many places that had opened its doors to the wounded.

I never left. I won't say it was easy. After a long recovery myself, I began to help Madam Jane, the current Medi-Witch for Hogwarts. Every person who came through that horrid door from the outside reminded me of my time as a prisoner in The Hunted Lair.

I was known to have to run to the bathroom to empty my own stomach. Flashes of that week spent in hell would spring on me at random points, for no reason at all but that I saw a wand, or someone would come in with that nasty smell of bodily aromas. I didn't sleep, nightmares kept me awake anyway. I ate when I was forced to, it only came up later. I was not well, and would not be until a month later when it all came to a standstill.

A baby, a one-year-old baby had faced down the most feared wizard in existence. He freed the world of the evil that hunted it. Casualties still came in for weeks afterward, but by the end of November the only thing the Hogwarts Hospital Wing was seeing again was the occasional potions accident and a charm gone wrong here and there.

Madam Jane never said anything about me still being there, no one ever asked me to stay, no one told me to leave either. Slowly I began to heal, my nightmare became few and far between and I began to put on some much needed weight. On the last day of classes Madam Jane finally said something to me that wasn't of the everyday conversation. She asked me to take her place. She was getting very old and wanted to rest.

The thought of leaving Hogwarts and going back into the real world scared me to death, I agreed immediately. She knew I would. After a year, I began to go places outside the hospital wing and now even have a summer home in Hogsmeade. I never know when I will be needed, so I like to stay close.

Now, the war has picked up where it left off. Not much has changed except the baby boy is due to turn sixteen soon. I know, and I don't know how I just do, that it will be that young child who avenge all those lives taken, who will kill the beast. But he is only a child, and I should be getting on to him for things like Quidditch injuries and broken limbs, not battle wounds.

Already in the boys life he has faced so much. Each year defying You-Know-Who one more time, wondering if the next time he won't be so lucky. Don't think I don't see the new wounds he comes in with after summer vacation. I know those didn't happen here at school, no matter how horrible that little Death Eater child Draco Malfoy is.

I get on to Harry, he is not careful enough in my opinion, though I would never admit it, I understand him. I know he really does not go looking to deeply for trouble, it seemed to be walking behind him looking for any opportunity to sink him deeper then he was before. Sometimes I wish I could just lock him up here in the hospital wing.

I do not know if he has noticed it yet but he has his own bed in here. He is always placed in the same bed; even when he is being brought in by someone else they always place him in his bed. It is never used by anyone else; no, it never was even before Potter began school here for it was my bed first.

I have the Hospital Wing ready for anything, it's the first war all over again only this time I am in charge and by myself in here. Maybe I will start training student to help. As much as I do not want them to see the results of You-Know-Who's attacks they need to learn anyway. Chances are the war will still be going on after they graduate. They need to be prepared.

I hear a knock at my door; I walk out wondering who was still in the castle in the middle of July? I open it only to have Dumbledore rush in carrying a large bundle in his arms. I notice the headmasters normally prestige giant blue robes are covered in red. Blood, Harry's blood. That's the bed the bundle is being laid in. My heart skips a beat and I place on my professional mask.

You-Know-Who has been at it again, the blood wards around Harry's house was destroyed by a simple overlooked fact. Voldemort carried Harry's blood within him. The stupid Dursleys never had a chance. Harry almost didn't either, but he'll be alright. I'll make sure of it. Maybe he will be the first one I train, he'll be staying in here for the rest of the summer, I won't stand for anything less. Yes, I have it all planned out, he will defiantly be first, and safe here under lock and key.

I can't believe the fate of the world is on the shoulders of this little boy. This child, he is so young, they are all so young.

End


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